La Vie en Rose
by Torscha
Summary: A moment in time, captured in Reiko's point of view. Flowery verbose prose abounds.


La Vie en Rose  
or,  
Genwaku no Melody  
  
by Torscha (dhu_aoi@yahoo.com)  
  
Standard copyright information applies. Gatekeepers and characters property  
of GONZO and whoever created them, I suppose. Obviously used without   
permission.  
  
Er... yeah. This takes place at no particular point in the series. It's just   
a moment in time.   
  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"How are you doing, Suzume-chan? I'm fine. It's hard sometimes, but the  
others are so nice and understanding... it almost makes me feel as if I fit   
in, this time... But what about you? How's your family?"  
  
Suzume didn't answer, and Reiko Asagiri didn't really mind. She knew the   
sparrow had other things on her mind, as the bird winged off into the bright  
Sunday morning to find more sustenance for her squalling brood. She had named  
the bird more out of courtesy than anything else -- she had set up home   
outside of her window, and in return for her trilling, delicate song, Reiko  
could only attempt conversation now and again, and occasionally laid out   
breadcrumbs.   
  
She sighed happily and reclined back onto the couch edged right up against   
the window. It didn't take much to make Reiko Asagiri happy, which, she felt,  
was rather a good thing.  
  
"But not everyone is so simple..."  
  
Reiko sighed again, and this time it was in mild vexation. She had never   
quite gotten the hang of getting angry, but managed a kind of anxious  
annoyance from time to time, usually when thinking became too much of a drag.  
It wasn't that she didn't like her new assignment of being a Gatekeeper, what  
with the excitement of the invaders, and the sense of camaraderie she felt   
during those engagements where she no longer stood out as the ditzy rich girl  
who was tolerated only because she wasn't worth the trouble to seriously   
hurt. But it was just that... sometimes, the others could be so complicated.  
  
Take Ukiya, for instance. He was brash and loud and boisterous, as could be  
expected from all boys his age, probably. But beneath his veneer of machismo,  
he hid a great responsibility to duty and an even greater capacity to care.  
She didn't know why -- she found it rather sweet. Ukiya, however, would be   
mortified if anyone ever even suspected him of 'softness'. What sensitivity   
he lacked could be blamed on his masculinity, and he really did try...  
  
Ruriko-san was even harder to fathom. It was plain to Reiko that she had   
strong feelings for their captain, but it sometimes puzzled her that nobody  
ever commented on that, or stranger still, why she hid it with old, familiar  
annoyance whenever confronted with those feelings. She supposed that everyone  
already knew and didn't talk about it because it was old news. Maybe she was  
just slow to catch on.   
  
"After all, they've known each other for years before we all came together.  
Maybe it's a game they're both playing."  
  
She shook her head. Thinking too much was bad for her -- it made her head   
hurt, and mentioning her greatest intellectual feats to others only made them  
look at her oddly, as if what she said was only glaringly obvious. So she hid  
the other, less important, observations, like how Megumi-san was struggling   
so obviously with her sense of inferiority, or how Kaoru-chan knew she was   
fighting a losing battle for Ukiya's heart with Ruriko.  
  
All this was, of course, only obvious.  
  
The sparrow returned to feed her offspring, and paused long enough to trill a  
belated good morning to Reiko before winging off again, and the girl called   
out, "Ohayo gozaimasuuu~u," after it. Talking to animals had come quite   
naturally to her -- didn't witches have familiars? It seemed obvious that   
they could talk to animals. She hadn't yet found any animal capable of   
talking back, but considered that it was merely a matter of time until she   
became a better witch.  
  
Of course, even when animals didn't talk, they said plenty. The sparrow's   
trilling outside her window was a call for love and companionship, impelled  
by nature, and also an exultation in the sheer joy of living. A dog's bark  
stemmed from primal instinct, protectiveness of its master and dedication to  
its duty. What need did they have of rationalisations and deep thought? What  
was important was that the sky remained blue and the sun remained to shine.  
  
"Maybe that's why the others think you're strange." But that thought didn't  
cause her as much distress as it did before. Even if they thought she was   
strange, they still cared about her -- why else would they look out for her  
when her own mistakes could have killed her, and inquired after her   
well-being when they were the ones involved in most of the fighting?  
  
Reiko Asagiri stood up, sliding easily off the couch. In private, grace  
prevailed where in public selfconscious clumsiness reigned, and she caught  
sight of her own reflection in the mirror, and blushed slightly. She knew  
others thought she was beautiful, but she could never imagine who could ever  
admire a ditzy, airheaded girl enough to act on it. Still, her mouth firmly  
closed to prevent any stray comments from escaping, the willowy brunette   
looked appealingly pensive.  
  
Dismissing the thought with the ease of long practice, she cleared her mind  
and sat at the huge white piano which dominated the room, the ribbon crowning  
it as vivid as the day it had been given to her.   
  
Mama... Papa... Reiko dipped her head for a moment, allowing private grief to  
touch her with its melancholia and fill her with that sense of wistful   
longing, missing most of all the happy memories that she would never have. As  
the mental darkness grew too oppressive, she laid elegant fingers on the   
ivory keys, and let light ripple forth from her fingertips, like a shining  
river under the moonlight, winding around the room. The sound trickled at   
first, then grew stronger, a gush of one girl's emotional catharsis, as she   
let memories and thoughts seep from her veins, pouring her own self, more  
precious than tears and blood, into the song. Tail-ends of sound curled   
throughout the house as the song twitched and unfolded, with the sinuous   
grace of an awakening cat. The shadows themselves seem to vibrate and dance  
to her tune, snatches of song luring them to lose definition in the blinding  
light of cleansing that burned through her, remaking the world into a place  
where she could find her own kind of comfort.  
  
The sun outside continued to shine, but the light inside the room danced and  
warped of its own volition, no longer held in abeyance by any laws except   
those of Reiko's heart. She felt the sensation of dizzying loss, of her self  
being subsumed, her petty cares and thoughts submerged by a sea of glowing  
warmth. She fell into it, feeling it open something within her, finally   
allowing soothing balm to lave the wounds caused by reality's hard edges with  
illusion's softened glow. It felt almost like a brilliant river carrying her  
back to her childhood, and she let herself drift, giving herself over to the  
dazzling melody.  
  
  
~Owari~  
Author's Note:   
There are bound to be protests over Reiko's character. "No!" everyone  
screams, "she -is- a ditzy airhead incapable of self-reflection!"  
Granted, there's no proof in the series that she -ever- reflects on   
things, except perhaps in the episode dedicated to her (You know, the one  
Megumi calls her useless and she takes off in the Gate Robot with hilarious  
consequences) but I think -everyone- has this little voice talking to them   
when there's nothing else to listen to. Even if thoughts don't come to her  
-at all- most times... hey, even in white noise, the body will manufacture  
false sensations. Granted, she may have the mind of a child, but how is that  
such a bad thing? It allows, in many ways, greater clarity of vision while   
sparing one from the hard edges of cynicism. In fact, children are frequently  
more self-inquiring than adults.  
Which brings me to another point. Why do people have their own   
unique Gate abilities? It's more than just their preferences -- it's a   
reflection of their own personality. Okay fine, that's a little too glaringly  
obvious sometimes (like Kaoru's Gate ability, or Ruriko's) but others aren't  
so obvious. Why the Gale Gate for Ukiya, or the Gate of Illusion for Reiko?  
Since I'm not an Ukiya fan, I'll leave the first one unanswered here.  
But Reiko's case is actually very interesting. She doesn't create childish   
illusions -just- because she can't accept and deal with reality. She just   
views the world through rose-tinted glasses (hence the title, lit. "Life in   
Pink" or something like that) which is something many people do. It's not  
necessarily a character flaw -- merely a trait.  
I put in the analysis of her team-mates' characters that the others  
don't seem to get in out of pique. It may be a little out of character, but  
what the hell, it's -my- fic.  
As for the emotional babble and runaway prosaic tendencies... just   
because someone can't or doesn't like thinking too deeply doesn't mean they  
can't feel, because unlike deep thought, emotion is something everyone is   
capable of. And the prose? Well... I just thought the flowery verbosity   
suits her.  
Am I reading too deep? Probably. So what?  
  
Acknowledgement:  
The phrase 'memories seep from her veins'is from the Sarah McLachlan   
song, Angel. It's actually 'memories seep from my veins'.  
The thing that made me think of the phrase 'la vie en rose' is the   
nickname of the Di Gi Charat character Usada Hikaru -- Rabi~en~Rose. It's   
a description that I think Reiko pretty much fits. 


End file.
